Truly reading the statements by the DoJ is hair-raising – Tun Mahathir

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APANDI’S APPREHENSION

by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

1. The A.G., Tan Sri Apandi Ali is frustrated at not being informed by the US Department of Justice of its latest civil lawsuits against 1MDB that appear to be a “repeat” of last year’s suits.

2. He expresses strong concerns at the insinuations that have been made against the Prime Minister (Dato Seri Najib Razak) of criminal wrongdoings.

3. Why the A.G. thinks he should be informed before the statements are made by the Dept of Justice of America is a mystery. There may be some understanding about cooperation between the two countries when carrying out investigations on international crimes.

But the A.G. is not known for cooperating on 1MDB investigations with foreign counterparts. The Swiss Attorney General has said this clearly. He stated “despite repeatedly saying it (the Malaysian A.G’s Dept) will cooperate with any foreign agencies investigating the 1MDB scandal, (it) refused to reply to the Swiss Attorney General’s office request for detailed information on the issue”.

4. There was no agreement about informing the Malaysian A.G. on crimes committed in the U.S. or anywhere. The money laundering was through U.S. banks, the purchases of property with allegedly stolen money were in the U.S. and some twenty other criminal acts were all committed in the U.S. and are U.S. affairs. Whether the criminals are Malaysian or not is irrelevant.

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Is the Malaysian A.G. expecting to intervene in the release of the 250 page statement. Is he expecting to get the Department of Justice of the U.S. to declare that the statements are official secrets, to be hidden from the public?

Does he expect the Dept of Justice to declare that there have been no wrongdoings based on the statements?

Does he expect the DoJ to ask “Malaysian Official 1” for confirmation that he was not involved in any wrongdoings.

Does he expect the Department of Justice of the U.S. to close the case after the alleged criminal has denied he had committed any wrongdoings?

5. He, Apandi, can do this in Malaysia. He can ignore the laws of Malaysia. He can stop the police from further investigations. He can tell lies about the contents of the report made by Malaysian institutions and agencies. But he cannot expect the United States of America to collaborate in his own wrongdoings, including hiding evidence. Certainly Malaysian jurisdiction does not include the U.S.

6. This latest report, all 250 pages of it, is not a repeat of the first statements. It is perhaps the most comprehensive report resulting from months of thorough investigations by experts.

It is devastating in exposing the details, including the conversations between the parties and the banks involved, the account numbers, the actual dates when large sums of money was diverted from the so-called 1MDB joint venture with Petro Saudi to the fraudulent companies, to banks and finally into the account of Malaysian Official 1 in Ambank Malaysia.

Reference is also made to the wife of Malaysian Official 1 receiving diamonds and jewellery worth hundreds of million Ringgit. Since Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and BN Stategic Communications Director, Rahman Dahlan has identified Malaysia Official 1 as Najib, denial by the wife is about as good as the denial by Najib.

7. The statement insists and proves that the USD681 million and various other sums which were transferred to the account of Malaysian Official 1 came from 1MDB.

8. The amount of money from 1MDB which was stolen is mind-boggling. Even in USD they run into billions. The purchases include million-dollar properties, a jet plane, a huge luxury yacht, numerous diamonds each worth tens of millions of USD, setting up a film company and the production of films costing hundreds of millions of ringgit.

9. Then there is the life-style of Jho Low and Reza Aziz together with many 1MDB officials. Huge sums were lost in gambling at casinos in Las Vegas, flying all over the world in private jets, bought with stolen money or rented, sailings in luxury yachts etc.

10. These are serious and massive misuse and loss of money borrowed by 1MDB to invest as sovereign wealth.

11. Truly reading the statements by the Department Of Justice is hair-raising. Nothing on this scale had ever happened in Malaysia. Indeed even the officials of the Department of Justice of the United States were flabbergasted at the scale of money laundering, the greed and the robberies which had taken place. They believe this is the biggest case of money laundering that they have ever come across.

12. Yet in Malaysia, the A.G. and the IGP blatantly declare that no wrongdoings have been done to require investigations and criminal charges to be made. While being quick to set up “independent” commissions to investigate alleged crime committed 40 years ago because of a request by a party member, serious allegations by a justice department of the United Stated are simply brushed off. The A.G.’s sense of self importance is laughable.

13. Truly the rule of law no longer operates in Malaysia. Millions of Malaysians may not know or appreciate what has happened. But whether they know or not they will have to pay a very high price in the future as a result of the massive robbery perpetrated by the leaders they trusted to rule this country.

14. What has happened is shameful. Reading the report by the Dept of Justice of the U.S. about the cheating, the blatant disregard for the laws of the country, the collusion by highly placed leaders, the greed make one want to hide in shame at being a Malaysia. – Read more source chedet.cc | Documents by DOJ click here — Department of Justice, 15 Jun 2017

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